Blog | World of Liesbet

Welcome to my blog

This is where I slow down — to reflect, to share, to dream out loud.

I write about what moves me.

The beauty and messiness of trying to make the world better.

The inner world of an idealist navigating systems.

Stories of change, questions without answers, and the emotional side of action.

You’ll find a mix of reflections, “how-to” thoughts, sketches, and sometimes raw, unfinished thoughts.

Because not everything has to be polished.

And because change — real change — often begins in the in-between.

I write for myself.

I write for others who feel too much.

I write for those who want to do something, but aren’t sure where to start.

Maybe you’ll find something here that helps you feel less alone.

Or that sparks an idea.

Or that reminds you: your weird, wild, wonderful mind is needed.

Always welcome here.

Zoeken

An Invitation to Wander

Summary On February 27th 2026 at 14:00, I will start walking at Domein Nieuwenhoven. (Provinciaal Domein Nieuwenhoven, Nieuwenhoven 1, 3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium) No registration, no agenda, no predefined outcome. Just wandering, together or alone. Join if it feels right. For a few weeks now, an idea has been quietly but persistently present. I talked about it with a few people. I let it rest. And it kept returning. So instead of analysing it further, I decided to try it.

Liesbet Peeters

13 jan4 minuten om te lezen

Episode 4: Power to Make versus Creativity

In the fourth episode of The World of Liesbet, I recorded my very first solo reflection. After three interviews with guests who inspired me in many different ways, I felt the need to explore a topic that keeps showing up in my own life and work: the dynamic between power to make and creative energy. For a long time, I believed these two forces were opposites. One is structured, linear and focused on execution. The other is soft, intuitive and nonlinear. One helps you plan. Th

Liesbet Peeters

29 dec 20252 minuten om te lezen

A reflection on 2025

Last Wednesday (17th of December 2025), we gathered with our research group for a small pre Christmas celebration. We shared a meal, laughed, caught up, and most importantly, slowed down together. We presented a beautiful overview of our highlights of 2025. I will link to her slide deck here , because it captures so much of what we achieved as a group. Listening to it, I was struck by how rarely we take the time to truly look back. The academic rat race moves fast. Deadlines

Liesbet Peeters

19 dec 20252 minuten om te lezen

🎙️ Episode 3: Art as a Catalyst for Change

A conversation with Tom Herck When I started The World of Liesbet , I imagined conversations that could bridge worlds — between science and emotion, logic and intuition, structure and creativity. Because real change, I’ve learned, often happens in the in-between. After two episodes with researchers and data scientists, I’m thrilled that Episode 3 takes us into a different kind of space — the world of art . And there was no better person to guide that journey than Tom Herck .

Liesbet Peeters

12 dec 20253 minuten om te lezen

Connecting the Dots: My Research Journey

When people ask me what I do as a professor, I often smile and say: “It’s complicated.” Over the years, my research journey has taken me from studying bacteriophages as potential antibiotic alternatives, to genetics in horses, to immunology in multiple sclerosis, and eventually into data science, ethics, and systems change. At first sight, my work may seem like a collection of very different projects. However, my research has always been guided by one simple purpose: to use m

Liesbet Peeters

4 dec 20257 minuten om te lezen

Finding meaning in a world of growing scarcity

When everyone is chasing the same shrinking resources, the real question becomes: what race do we actually want to run? During our Strategy Days at the Data Science Institute at UHasselt this week, one theme kept resurfacing: funding opportunities. Or rather, the increasing difficulty of finding them. Fewer calls, lower success rates, more competition. It is a familiar story for many researchers. But the more I reflected on it, the more I realized that this pressure is not u

Liesbet Peeters

4 dec 20253 minuten om te lezen

🎙️ Episode 2: Trained Talent and Power of Community

A conversation with Patrick Ryan Some people walk into a room and immediately energize it. Some people can take a complex vision, and quietly build a global movement around it. And some people can do both — not because it’s their gift, but because it’s what the mission requires. That’s what struck me about Patrick Ryan . He’s the Vice President of Observational Health Data Analytics at Janssen Research and Development, a professor at Columbia University, and a leading force b

Liesbet Peeters

29 okt 20252 minuten om te lezen

🎙️ Episode 1: Combining Excellence and Kindness

A conversation with Yves Moreau When I first started dreaming about launching a podcast, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing. Would it work? Would I find my voice as a host? Would it matter? But one thing I knew with absolute clarity: My very first guest would be Yves Moreau. Yves is a professor in electrical engineering at KU Leuven. He’s internationally known for his work in artificial intelligence and for his powerful voice in the ethics of data. But beyond all that, Y

Liesbet Peeters

22 sep 20253 minuten om te lezen

Why I'm launching a podcast - and Why Now

In just a few days — on 22 September — I will launch my very first podcast: The World of Liesbet – How to Become an Agent of Change . It’s something I’ve quietly dreamed about for a long time. And now that it’s almost here, I find myself both excited and a little exposed. Because this project is personal. Deeply so. I created this podcast with one question in mind: What would have helped me a few years ago? What guidance, what voices, what tools would have supported me as I

Liesbet Peeters

19 sep 20252 minuten om te lezen